Meeting the Shadow

A potential pitfall with the Jungian doctrine of the shadow is the temptation to project evil, not onto some external entity such as the devil, but rather onto “a relatively autonomous ‘splinter personality’”16 residing deep within us—namely, the compensatory “shadow,” “stranger,” or “other.” Thus, instead of saying “The devil made me do it,” one c

As envisioned by May, the daimonic includes and incorporates Jung’s concepts of the shadow and Self, as well as the archetypes of anima and animus. While Jung differentiates the shadow from the Self, and the personal shadow from the collective and archetypal shadow, May makes no such distinctions. This recalls a recent caution by Marie-Louise von F

Good loses some of its goodness, and evil some of its evil. As doubt of the “light” of consciousness increases, so the “darkness” of the soul appears less black. A new symbol emerges in which the opposites can be reconciled. I am thinking here of the symbols of the Cross, of the T’ai-Chi-Tu, and of the Golden Flower. For the individual, the emergen

Following the lead of his long-time teacher and friend, theologian Paul Tillich, May introduced the daimonic as a concept designed to rival the “devil,” the traditional Judeo-Christian symbol of cosmic evil. It is May’s contention that the term, the devil, “is unsatisfactory because it projects the power outside the self and opens the way for all k

Jung’s life-long exploration of the powerful, archetypal forces of the unconscious led him to conclude that they “possess a specific energy which causes or compels definite modes of behavior or impulses; that is, they may under certain circumstances have a possessive or obsessive force (numinosity!). The conception of them as daimonia is therefore

In my estimation, Jung’s concept of the shadow and, in particular, May’s less familiar model of the daimonic, have paved the way toward a more progressive psychology of evil. Because the daimonic stands in contrast to Peck’s premise of the demonic, it is worthwhile to examine May’s model in more detail.

Projection on the Ego Level is very easily identified: if a person or thing in the environment informs us, we probably aren’t projecting; on the other hand, if it affects us, chances are that we are a victim of our own projections. For instance, Jill might very well have been a prude, but was that any reason for Betty to hate her? Certainly not; Be

There are three ways in which the individual can attempt to solve the problem. He can renounce one side in favor of the other; he can retire from the conflict altogether; or he can seek a solution that will satisfy both sides. The first two possibilities need no further discussion. The third seems at first impossible. How can contradictory opposite